Water Barley
Ingredients
Directions
Boil 1 ½ tablespoons of barley in 1 quart of water for three hours.
Add boiling water to bring the volume back to 1 quart.
Strain the barley and add a pinch of salt.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Barley (in the method)
- Its starch and flavor leach into the simmering water, giving the drink body and a toasty grain taste.
- Water (in the method)
- Acts as the cooking liquid that hydrates the grains and carries their starch and flavor into the drink.
The step that matters
Adding boiling water to restore the volume. Water evaporates during the long simmer. Topping up with boiling water keeps the simmer going and keeps the drink from becoming too concentrated. Cold water would drop the temperature and pause the cooking.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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